Fuel for a new school year

Lincoln Public Schools is gearing up for a new year - no one more so than the Nutrition Services Department.

Early Monday morning, employees at the Nutrition Services Distribution Center near 9th and Van Dorn streets welcomed a parade of trucks filled with food and supplies for the school year that begins Aug. 12. Boxes upon boxes arrived, filled with everything from green beans to rotini, from ketchup to plastic gloves.

Throughout the school year, millions of pounds of food pass through the distribution center on its way to cafeterias. Food is ordered six weeks in advance. Some numbers to chew on, in terms of annual consumption at LPS:

• $6.1 million in food 
• 4.6 million lunches 
• 1.3 million breakfasts
• 504,000 after-school snacks
• $1.5 million in fresh produce
• 160 cases of chicken nuggets (23,840 servings)
• 384 cases of stuffed crust cheese pizza (26,880 servings)
• 32 cases of vegan burritos (1,536 servings)
• 3,973 cases of yogurt
• 380 cases of brown rice
• 18,375 cases of 100 percent juice

Nutrition Services is self-sustaining, meaning it receives no money from the LPS general fund.

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